With these funds, I will purchase a variety of Spanish language books that speak to the bilingual and bicultural life experiences of my students. Although 60 percent of the students my school district serves come form Spanish speaking homes, our Spanish language classrooms as severely under-resourced lacking authentic experiences for our students to explore, develop a love for, and build on their literacy skills. Spanish is an integral component to my student's daily personal, public, private, and community lives. The novels, comics, books, and canonical texts your investment will fund will build classroom libraries where students can choose level appropriate reads. These diverse resources will create opportunities for reading circles and serve as the foundation for mulitiliteracy projects such as: identity masks that tell stories, critical deconstruction and reconstruction of storylines, interactive arts exhibitions, and video-games for literacy and street art. 

By supporting this cause, you are investing in culturally responsive literacy pedagogy that strives to foster a bicultural, bilingual, and biliterate group of students of color whose voices are essential to our society. While there is a severe lack of multicultural and multilingual resources that directly speak to the experiences of U.S. based Latinx students, it is my belief that by exploring the lives, cultures, and practices of local and global Spanish-speaking societies our students can develop a strong sense of identity, social justice, and consciousness that prepares them to be active members of their communities. As an urban school district primarily serving Black and Latinx students, we need your help to provide these experiences for our students. 

As language proficiency levels vary by student depending on generation in the U.S., time of arrival, international schooling, our libraries require a wide range of proficiency levels. As such, I am requesting 5 copies of each of the following texts that range from elementary to advanced proficiency: 

• Perez y Martina
• El país de las cosas perdidas
• Mi día de la A a Z
• Completamente diferente
• Jugemos al futbol y football
• Trencitas
• Mis colores, mi mundo
• Abuela Trina y Marrasquina van a la ciudad
• Cuadros de familia
• Too many tamales
• Un colchon de plumas para Agata
• Poemas para soñar juntos
• Un tiempo perfecto para soñar
• Libro secreto de los duendes
• La fiesta de las tortillas
• Abuelita llena de vida
• Toca Chavi, toca!
• La tarjeta de antonio
• El niño de cabeza
• Mi propio cuartito
• La abuela de más
• La casita
• Los discos de mi abuela
• El mumuu de Marina
• El cuervito al rescate
• Bajo las palmadas reales: Una infancia Cubana
• Luisa viaja en tren
• De oro y esmeraldas
• Al cayo del cielo
• La velita de cuentos
• Quién hizo los mundos: leyendas de las americas
• Había una vez
• Tomas y la señora de la biblioteca
• El soñador
• Kike
• El rock de la momia y otros versos diversos
• La ciudad de las bestias
• Como la tía Lola vino de visita a quedarse
• La prisión de honor
• Quedando bien
• Los mundos que amo
• El árbol de la rendición
• La raíces del tamarindo
• La magia del amor
• Tomando partido
• Mi última clase
• La casa en Mango Street
• Dark Dude
• El loro en el horno: mi vida
• Azul y otros relatos del mar
• Cuando era Puertorriqueña

The works here listed here are written in Spanish and most speak to the experiences of US based Latinx youth or are written by US Latinx authors. With your help, our students will be able to delve into and immerse themselves in culturally relevant literature. 

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